My decent into digital only.

[Total LOLige]

I prefer hard-copy but usually buy digital for PC because of sales, I'll never pay full price for digital lucky if I pay over £10 because 8 times out of ten hard copy is less. I don't buy digital for PS3 or 360 because their stores are way overpriced.

 

[ResonanceSD]

You don't have to find the disk. You don't have to listen to your disk whirring madly in the drive and sounding like a helicopter about to take off.

You need a new (not shit) disk drive.

And a filing system for games.



Physical copies cost the same as digital, and give you more, what's not to like?

 

[Bad Jim]

You need a new (not shit) disk drive.

And a filing system for games.

No I don't, I've gone digital.

Physical copies cost the same as digital, and give you more, what's not to like?

Driving miles to get them.

 

[Little Gray]

I think digital sucks because you need to online to download it and it removes the ability to resell it.

I didn't mean it that way (it is nice to have a collection), but my point still stands. Removing retail from the equation really opens up a ton of possibilities. Indies may not even have to go through a publisher. Big studios don't have to worry about sending out the right number of copies to retailers. The cost of games goes down significantly. It's a win win for everyone except the middle-man retailers.

Except for you know those millions and millions of people who like to trade in games when they are done with them. The ability to sell them when I am done means that most brand new games end up costing me only $10 instead of 50+ that they otherwise would have.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I mainly buy digital for the sales.

That said the absence of a noisy optical drive is an improvement and I love Steams built-in backup system.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Digital only is great and I see absolutely no reason to ever buy physical copies again. In fact I haven't bought a physical game since Mass Effect, 6 years ago. Media should always be built into a simple form and never have multiple physical parts that must be put together for it to work.

 

[TrevHead]

I like having the choice to buy DL or retail as I only have a limited amount of shelf space. Usually if the game is something I'll only play once in 5 years, not having a box is a godsend. That said my favorite games that have lots of replayability I much prefer retail. That's why I LOVE my boxed 360 shmups especially those I've imported from Japan and have Kanji on the box, it greatly adds to there value.

-3DS games: There's no account system, so I buy almost everything physically. I only buy digital-exclusive small or indie games, like Pushmo or Gunman Clive.

You can re-download things for free, but yeah there's no list of things you've bought and that would be helpful.

No account for 3DS? So if my 3DS breaks and I get a replacement it's bye bye games? If so I don't like the sound of that especially been a PAL gamer where more titles are download only.

 

[krazykidd]

Iv'e said this many times but no . Call me old fashioned but i like having physical copies of my games . I like having boxes of the games i own , on a shelf that i can see . I like holding my games . I like having something tangible . Note that i'm a console gamer . I own about 250 console games and 7 digital games ( on steam ) and they are all indie games . I can accept throwing 5-10$ on a indie digtal only game because a) it's inexpensive and b) they are not available otherwise . However if , in the near future sll games become DD only , i will stop buying new games and become a retro gamer .

That being said . I do understand the advantages of DD games and why that is the future . But that's a future I do not want . And one i refuse to accept .

 

[Auron]

I'm from 88, I have a long history with hard copies and large cardboard boxes that have decorated my room since the late 90's. Boxes are just small dvd boxes now and discs have become a hassle. I haven't bought a physical game since the Orange Box and am very happy, a bit nostalgic at times but really what I liked about hard copies(the boxes and manuals.) is entirely gone by now.

and it removes the ability to resell it.

That's more of a console thing, I like my library right where it is and haven't seem a good reason to sell a game since I sold off my N64 and MegaDrive(genesis for you weird people.) I mean, why the hell would I want to sell my Doom 2 copy? With big discounts on seasonal sales for every online retailer with extremely low prices it doesn't even make that much sense.

I don't think I've ever met a PC gamer that regularly sells his finished single player games, even when it was a possibility(a long long time ago.), and we have had cd keys and accounts for a long time before Steam anyway.

 

[sethisjimmy]

What gets me is when handheld systems have physical games. That just seems so backwards to me. It's all about portability and convenience right? Then why do I have to carry my physical games around with me in addition to the system? Just let me keep my tens of games in the system, it's so much more convenient.

I have a 3DS so that's just a pet peeve of mine. At least make the option available for retail games. I'm so sick of waiting for digital versions to become available long after the retail release, or often they never have a digital version. Seems like Playstation is way farther ahead in that respect.

 

[Something Amyss]

Except for you know those millions and millions of people who like to trade in games when they are done with them. The ability to sell them when I am done means that most brand new games end up costing me only $10 instead of 50+ that they otherwise would have.

Yes, but you see, that doesn't affect ME, so it doesn't matter.

...Well, this is the general mentality of gamers.

On the other hand, if they don't want to resell, more power to 'em, I guess.

 

[Rednog]

I made the transition to completely digital as a PC gamer sometime after Fallout 3. I realized that more and more copies of PC games were pretty much nothing more than a disk that booted up steam and told you to just download it from their service. Personally, I think it's a shame because I hate the idea of your game just being a part of a service. I prefer owning a disk that no company can suddenly stop me from playing it. Alas, there really isn't that choice anymore.

While I transitioned games wise, I am the complete opposite when it comes to movies/tv shows. I want those seasons on disk, especially when they're charging the same price for the thing.

 

[Something Amyss]

What gets me is when handheld systems have physical games. That just seems so backwards to me. It's all about portability and convenience right? Then why do I have to carry my physical games around with me in addition to the system? Just let me keep my tens of games in the system, it's so much more convenient.

I have a 3DS so that's just a pet peeve of mine. At least make the option available for retail games. I'm so sick of waiting for digital versions to become available long after the retail release, or often they never have a digital version. Seems like Playstation is way farther ahead in that respect.

Except in the storage department. The PS Vita has a nice selection of mobile games for download, but charges ridiculous prices for the memory cards. And since you can't simply download non-vita titles, you're likely anchored to a PS3 to swap out titles.

Honestly, I'd rather be beholden to cartridges than to my PS3 or PC.

This is one of the reasons I only own a couple of Vita titles. I'm torn between carrying around carts and using the digital service, which means I have to delete and swap out titles. I sort of wonder if this is a bottleneck for them in terms of sales.

 

[thomaskattus]

I am an old geezer (born in '66) and I have eagerly embraced Digital Delivery. It is easy, convenient, and I have less stuff sitting around that I have to dust (I really hate dusting).

 

[Abomination]

I have a 500 gig monthly traffic limit. I love me digital downloads and haven't bought a physical copy of a game in damn near 3-4 years.

 

[Yarkaz]

I definitely prefer physical copies, they suit me much better as a person. I'm okay with digital downloads if I can burn them onto a disk and store them somewhere away from my fragile, aging computer, but if they're tied to an account... Well, I really hate the idea that I could have the right to play my purchased games revoked at the will of whatever service I'm "buying" them from. I don't view it as that much more convenient either... There are many games I paid money for that I can no longer play because they were tied to a broken device or I lost a password to some account.

I guess that when I give somebody a large chunk of money, I expect to own something in return. I expect to hold it, stick it on a shelf, and be able to pick it up at any point in the future to play it again. If a guy who downloaded Fire Emblem: Awakening loses his 3DS (or if it's stolen), he will need to buy the game again. If/when I lose mine, I will be able to buy a new 3DS and keep on playing, right where I left off!

Finally, I really, honestly enjoy the experience of tracking down a game, driving to the store, chatting with the (sometimes not entirely awful) game store employees, trading a few old games to bump the price down, breaking the seal, flipping through the manual while I wait for the game to load... I don't view it as any more of a hassle than all the contrivances of downloadable games, like licencing issues, transfers, and download times.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Nah, if I'm going to buy it, then it has to be a physical copy. Just like music and books for me. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I do feel uncomfortable spending money on digital files. I just like something physical to show for it, besides, I like the collection.

 

[Lynxan]

For me, I'd rather have a physical copy when ever I can, though that is starting to die down a lot in this gen of consoles. I still love to play many older games, but I just don't think in 10 or more years I'm just not going to want to do that with they games this gen.

Why? Because when ever they stop support for the system, all the games that are just broken and endlessly crash will no longer have the streams of patches that make them work any more. For example Fallout 3, great game, but was buggy as hell when it came out. Does anyone really want to go back to that.

I'm just hoping that the online stores will transcend there console (Come on Sony, I understand why you don't want to patch every disc that you've got out there, but you at least need to patch as many digitally sold games to work with PS4, there still possible money for you.) At least I hope they do see the value in this since it's an instant library that can still make profit for the console makers and game makers.

I really don't play too many games on PC, but I do that digitally whenever since I usually only get games that I'll play for a time and don't tend to go back to.

I won't pay to DL any game from Nintendo till they end forcing a game to be only on the one console. I had been one of the first to get a 3DS and was getting the ambassador games along with other timed freebees. Then the system was stolen and now it looks like I'll never get any of that back thanks to the set up (and is why I may not get they system again at all).

 

[Eric the Orange]

was born in 1973, not sure what that has to do with it.

I only added that bit in there to let the reader know that I was an adult before Digital Download became a widely available thing.